Senator Obama’s Association with William Ayers is a Legitimate Issue
Presidential Politics October 7th, 2008Senator McCain and Governor Palin have begun pushing hard on the campaign trail the issue of Senator Obama’s ties with the 1960s political radical William Ayers. Supporters of Senator Obama complain Sen. McCain is trying to change away from the subject of the economy too one of personal smear campaigns.
Yet it is important because it is an attempt to shine some light on the political beliefs of Sen. Obama. Just as it is legitimate for Democrats to look into Sen. McCain’s record for hints as to what he would do if elected president. For instance, it would be fair to question Sen. McCain if at one point in his life he was on the board of a non-profit organization which also included the head of the John Birch Society–an extreme right-wing group. There is a pretty good chance if a member of the John Birch Society is associated the non-profit organization it advocates a radical agenda. Members of the John Birch Society tend not to be individuals moderate in their views on politics or public policy. Even if Sen. McCain never met with the radical leader, one would have to question his association with such an organization and let the voters decided whether they agree with its agenda or not.
The same standard should apply with Sen. Obama. William Ayers is no Whittaker Chambers–a one time Communist who realized the errors of his ways and repented and spoke out as to the horrors of Communism. Ayers never repented his attempts to overthrow the United States’ government and still harbors many radical views. Instapundit.com links to a segment on CNN (it is not typo–it really was on CNN) which discussed Sen. Obama’s involvement with Ayers. The group Sen. Obama and Ayers belong (Obama served as the chairman) was one which championed liberal education reform. Senator Obama attended a fundraiser in the home of Mr. Ayers. One has to assume if Mr. Ayers supports a politician, it is someone who agrees with his views. Imagine if Sen. McCain attended a fundraiser in his honor at the home of Timothy McVeigh or David Duke?
If Mr. Ayers was the only questionable person in Sen. Obama’s past then you could argue every politician has to deal with these types of people at some point and it is not significant. Yet when you include radical clergy Jeremiah Wright and Father Fr. Michael Pfleger, along with political fundraiser Tony Rezko a pattern emerges.
It is likely Sen. Obama associated with these these people for one of two reasons.
(1) He was driven by pure political motives and to rise within the ranks of Democratic politics in Chicago, one has to spend time with these people (especially Rezko). Yet at some point though Sen. Obama should have realized such associations with questionable people is wrong for a person interested in making Chicago better and reform was needed. Yet there is no record of Sen. Obama advocating change in the status quo of Chicago politics.
(2) The only other reason why he spent time with these individuals was he agrees with their politics. Sen. Obama sat in the pews of Rev. Wright’s church for twenty years, only to denounce him when he thought it was causing him political trouble. He sat on the board of an organization championed by a 1960s radical.
Senator Obama’s political past is important because it gives insight into those policies he would champion as president. Senator McCain has a legitimate right to bring it up so voters can make an informed decision.
October 10th, 2008 at 6:03 am
Senator McCain and Governer Palin simply put is not ready to lead our country. Our country is in a crisis and all McCain and Palin can do is throw dirt. Do we forget that McCain was involved in one of the worst financial scandals, remember the Keating5. And what of Palin’s smudges in her career. mccain has no idea about the economy. After all all of his answers to the financial crisis is to take ownwership of plans and ideas that are not his own. Do we really want a president who cannot remember how many houses or cars he has. This is not the kind of leadership we need. Is obama’s ties to Ayers really the issue or is is that our country is not as great as I had hoped, after all is the question really about Ayers or is it really something more. Is it a question of race or is is that for once maybe the rich might actually have to pay thier fair share. However you look at it we can have four more years of the same, or we can have a president that actually knows what it is like to live where most of us live. McCain is out of touch, and does not have the best interest of middle and lower class. Bush doubled our national debt, can we expect the same with a mcCain presidency, I think so.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
[...] other day I wrote a pieceon Senator Obama’s association with Bill Ayers. In it I wondered what Sen. Obama would say [...]
October 10th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Mr. Rogers,
First of all, Senator McCain had the least involvement in the Keating Five scandal. Robert Bennett–one of President Clinton’s impeachment lawyers and a special counsel during the Senate hearings on the scandal–said this past spring that Senator McCain should never have been brought up on ethic charges because he nothing subtancial to do with it.
Second, my reason for associating Senator Obama with Bill Ayers is not to accuse the senator of terrorist thoughts but to try to gain some insight into his political beliefs. We know very little about his past. Senator Obama was the president of the Harvard Law Review, yet he wrote no published articles during his time at Harvard. Columbia University will not allow anyone to read his senior thesis. While working as a community organizer, a law professor, and a state senator he wrote virtually nothing substancial about politic or public policy. How many times did he vote “present” while a state senator because he did not want those votes to come back to haunt him in future elections. Who you associate with tells a lot about your beliefs and your character.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:02 pm
William Ayers is a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, with whom Barack served on the board of an education-reform organization in the mid-1990′s. According to the Associated Press, they are not close: “No evidence shows they were “pals” or even close when they worked on community boards years ago …” (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93KD6Q00&show_article=1)
Smear groups and now the McCain campaign are trying to connect Obama to acts Ayers committed 40 years ago – when Barack was just eight years old. Here’s what the New York Times reported on the connection (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html)